Norways' prime minister has revealed that he worked as a taxi driver so that he could listen to voters' concerns.
Jens Stoltenberg, 54, spent an afternoon wearing an Oslo taxi driver's badge and uniform as he drove passengers around the capital and struck up conversations with them.
The cab was fitted with a hidden camera that recorded people's reactions as they eventually realised Mr Stoltenberg's identity. One said: "From this angle, he really looks like the prime minister."
An elderly woman told him their meeting was a lucky encounter because she had "wanted to send a letter" to him about the high salaries of politicians.
Most passengers were not fazed about meeting their prime minister and one deadpanned: "So, you have begun driving a taxi."
However, Mr Stoltenberg did not seem completely at ease behind the wheel, telling one passenger that he had not driven for eight years.
Footage from the cab was released as part of Mr Stoltenberg's Labour Party campaign before the general election on September 9.
In a video on his Facebook page, he said: "It's important for me to hear what people really think. If there's one place where people say what they think, it's in the taxi."
He told the Verdens Gang newspaper: "I think that the country and Norwegian taxi passengers are better served if I were a prime minister and not a taxi driver."
His party's coalition with the Socialist Left and the Centre parties have been in power since 2005, but latest opinion polls put it behind the Conservative and Progress parties.
